Set for release in 2014, Bethesda and Zenimax Online Studios’ The Elder Scrolls Online is one of next year’s most anticipated releases. At E3 2013 in June, it was revealed that the title would also see release on PS4 and Xbox One, and not much more has been shared since then. On Aug. 20, Nick Konkle, Lead Gameplay Designer at Zenimax Online Studios, discussed with Examiner the development process of The Elder Scrolls Online for PS4 and Xbox One.
Having started development close to six years ago, the development road of The Elder Scrolls Online has been a long one – for reference, this means The Elder Scrolls Online was in development three years before Skyrim was released. When talking on the topic if ESO was always planned as a console release, Konkle shared that it was a “fortunate opportunity that just evolved.”

“The fact that we said we were going to come out on console was an opportunity because we had a game and an interface style, along with a control scheme, that was all fortunately congruent with consoles,” he noted.

He continued to add that, “the menus and the UI produced some challenges for us, but those were a known set of issues and the solutions to them are pretty well understood.”

On the topic of menus, Konkle admits that they have had to cut down the menus for release on consoles, but that there were a number of menus that work well on consoles.

The Elder Scrolls Online will be released for PC, PS4, and Xbox One is 2014. We’ll have more on The Elder Scrolls Online throughout the week.